Just In Time

2012

Just In Time was a location-based time-travel game, created for Dublin Fringe Festival 2012. The audience played the game using their smartphones, alone or with another person. Taking on the role of a time-traveller, they moved around Dublin’s Temple Bar district tracking Carmen, the mysterious female leader of a terrorist cell who threatens humanity in the year 2212. However, as the audience journey back in time (from the 2212 of the future back to 2012 of the present) they discover the injustice and conflict that drives the actions of Carmen and the terrorists. When they eventually track Carmen down they are faced with a decision - change the future, but in what way?

I used the 7scenes platform (now defunct) to pin audio and video media to various GPS locations around Dublin’s Temple Bar district; these triggered on the audience’s smartphone as they moved around following the game-map. Using time-travel movies, particularly the French black and white film La Jetée, as inspiration, I designed a series of videos that were intended to be watched on location, linking the built environment in the video with the environment the audience member experienced around them.

IRISH THEATRE MAGAZINE

by Clara Kumagai Reviewed 15 September

The Playground strand of ABSOLUT Fringe is theatre that describes itself as immersive and interactive, and involves that most alarming of all phrases, audience participation. Just In Time, however, does not even come close to that particular form public torture. You don't have to studiedly avoid eye contact with cast members or be hauled up on stage to be embarrassed – mostly because there isn’t even a stage involved. The labyrinthine streets of Temple Bar serves as the set, and can be traversed singly or in pairs as long as you are armed with a trusty iPhone or Android phone.

Máiréad Ní Chróinín’s script is set in a Dublin two hundred years in the future (there's a new Luas line which has probably taken those two hundred years to be built) with a plot that involves the cure for ageing and its terrorist opponents, La Muerte. With your iPhone, your task is to hunt down these terrorists and protect those who want to live forever. Aided with a live map, audio and visuals, the technology is used cleverly and simply, bringing you to hidden nooks and crannies around the streets of the city centre. The sci­fi storyline seems tired at first, but brings you to making an active, pivotal decision. Well executed and absorbing, this is a good hour during which you can be the lead in your very own action film.